Description

This route climbs the spider-webbed, paralleling seams up the glassy panel of rock on your left when you first enter the corridor. It sort of looks like a cracked sidewalk turned vertically, hence the name (also inspired by the Ian McEwan book). After the glassy panel the route more or less hugs the arete feature at the border of the good rock (on the right) and the shattered junk-blocks (on the left).

The route starts just uphill from the lone tree in the corridor, and can easily be toproped by climbing 5.10a Crack and lowering down to clip the fixed wires as directionals. It finishes at the same double-bolt anchor as 5.10a Crack as well.

Boulder up and plug Metolius black into a pod, then make powerful moves over a mini-roof. Slap your way up the twin seams (Metolius orange in the right one) to a fixed nut. Crux moves past this nut on poor footholds and soapy pinches take you to another fixed wire at a jug. Climb the arete (Metolius blue) to a big horn, then move back right onto the face and weave your way through dodgy rock (two fixed wires) to a balancey move gaining a no-hands ledge. From here, 5.11 arete and face climbing take you to the anchor (make a nice traverse on good, silver crimps at the level of the bolts to gain the anchor).

This route was done headpoint-style, with all gear placed from the ground save the fixed wires. I jump-tested the fixed wire at the crux, and it held. If it blew, though, you'd get all sorts of f**ked up. The rock at the crux has literally no texture, so it's best to hit this on a cold day.

Protection

There are four fixed wires on the route. In addition you'll need: Metolius black, Metolius yellow, Metolius orange (2), Metolius blue (2), Metolius purple, and a set of RPs.